text:
DSM 'clean taste' lactase enzyme granted European patent
Earlier today, Netherlands-based DSM announced that after years of consideration the European Patent Office (EPO) has approved the November 2006-filed patent application relating to its arylsulfatase-free Maxilact lactase enzyme.
Arylsulfatase is an impurity found in lactase that converts components naturally present in milk to cause off-flavors in and limit the shelf life of lactose-free dairy products.
Speaking exclusively with DairyReporter.com, Merel Roes, marketing manager of Maxilact, said that the application was approved despite heavy opposition from rivals.
"It was filed in 2006, so quite a long time ago," said Roes. "During the process, several oppositions were received. The EPO reviewed these and said that regardless of the comments the concept is novel and granted the patent."
"It will give us exclusive use of the concept until November 2026."
"The patent means that DSM is the only one in the region that can supply lactase with these characteristics," she said.
Leading lactose-free brands
Lactose intolerance is the genetic inability to digest lactose.
Lactase enzymes like Maxilact break down - or hydrolyze - lactose into glucose and galactose, producing a lactose-free dairy product. The difference between Maxilact and other available lactase enzymes is that the DSM ingredient does not contain arylsulfatase.
This, according to DSM, enables manufacturers to formulate lactose-free dairy products that do not exhibit any off-flavor.
"Several years ago, before we filed the patent, we noticed the off-flavor in lactose-free milk," said Roes. "We couldn't attribute it to any component in milk, so we looked at lactase."
Following "several years of development" Maxilact was launched in 2008. Since then "most of the leading brands in the lactose-free market are making products using this technology," said Roes.
"Our customers have told us that they see an improvement in the shelf life of their lactose-free products with this enzyme. They often describe this improvement as clean taste."
"This means that there is no apparent taste and it tastes as natural as normal milk," she said.
Asian demand
Lactose-intolerance among European consumers is fairly low, although a trend of self-diagnosis in recent years has led to an increase in demand for lactose-free dairy products in the region.
Demand is also increasing in Asia, where experts believe lactose intolerance rates among consumers could be as high as 90%.
With global demand for lactose-free dairy products increasing, the EPO decision to grant DSM the patent couldn't have come at a better time, said Roes
"We see strong growth in the Asian market and with our customers in Europe and the US who are looking to export to countries in Asia like China," she said.


text:
Complimentary Benefits
We strongly believe that the well being of our staff is important. Attractive leave and medical benefits, recreational facilities and activities, as well as work-life harmony programmes, are provided to ensure that our staff have fulfilling and rewarding careers
1) free GP Consultation
- Free 5 Telemed Consulting for 1 year if bought the enterprise insurance from Raffles Provident LLP
3) free comprehensive eye health screening
4) free SPA
5) free local attraction tickets
Gift A
Gift B
Gift C
6) free personal accident insurance
Who can enroll in this policy?
A person whose age is between Twenty One (21) years and seventy (70) years and must be either one of the following:
- Singapore Citizen
- Singapore Permanent Residents
- Expatriate or Foreigner who is holding a valid employment pass and work permit, who is residing in Singapore
This complimentary personal accident cover is STRICTLY by invitation only and only valid 6 months of coverage.
For enquiries, please contact your agent for more information.
1. The Company shall not be liable under the Policy for any claims directly or indirectly due to, arising or resulting from
a. any consequence of war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities, warlike operations (whether war be declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, mutiny rising, military or usurped power, confiscation, detention, nationalisation, requisition, martial law or state of siege or any of the events or causes which determine the proclamation or maintenance of martial law or state of siege;
b. intentional self-injury, suicide or attempted suicide (whether felonious or not) while sane or insane, willful and/or intentional act, provoked assault, intoxication, insanity, venereal disease or AIDS, childbirth or pregnancy (excluding accidental miscarriage) or abortion or any complication following therefrom;
c. the Insured Person engaging in or practising for or taking part in caving, mountaineering or rock climbing necessitating the use of guides or ropes, potholing, underwater activities involving the use of underwater breathing apparatus (other than Leisure Underwater Activities as defined in this Policy), bungee jumping, sky diving, hang-gliding, paragliding, parachuting or any activities in aerial balloon whilst airborne, motor rallies, any kind of racing or any sports in a professional capacity unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Company;
d. the Insured Person engaging in aerial activities or air travel except as a fare-paying passenger in any properly licensed aircraft being operated by a Licensed airline in accordance with published schedules of flights or timetables or in a properly licensed multi-engined aircraft being operated by any other licensed commercial air carrier;
e. bodily injuries requiring surgical treatment except such as may result directly from surgical operations made necessary solely by injuries covered by this Policy;
f. the Insured Person engaging in military, naval or air force service, police, civil defense service other than Reservist Training during peacetime;
g. the Insured Person engaging in the following occupations/work scope unless otherwise agreed by the Company and specified in the Schedule:
I. Pilots, aircrew or any occupation involving aviation activities
II. Full-time military personnel
III. Police force personnel
IV. Firefighters
V. Construction / unskilled workers
VI. Ship crew or workers on board vessels, oil, and gas rig workers, offshore workers, stevedores, shipbreakers
VII. Welding
VIII. Professional sports teams
IX. Work involving height (exceeding 30 feet above the ground or floor level) and/or works underground and/or travel beyond normal speed on land and/or handling of hazardous chemical/electricity
X. Use of Woodworking tools and machinery
XI. Professional divers and jockeys
XII. Crane operators
h. illegal acts of the Insured Person or an Insured Person's beneficiary;
i. or is contributed to by, the Insured Person has taken a drug unless it is taken on proper medical advice and is not for the treatment of drug addiction;
j. or is contributed by, any medical condition, pre-existing conditions, congenital anomalies and conditions arising out of or resulting therefrom, physical defect or infirmity;
k. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and/or any HIV related illness including AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and/or any mutant derivative or variations thereof however caused;
2. This Policy does not cover any Accident directly or indirectly caused by or contributed to by or arising from ionizing, radiation or contamination by radioactivity from any nuclear fuel or from nuclear waste from the combustion of nuclear fuel. Solely for the purpose of this Exclusion combustion shall include any self-sustaining process of nuclear fusion;
3. The compensation provided by this Policy shall not apply to nor include any Accident and/or Bodily Injury directly or indirectly caused by or contributed to by or arising from nuclear weapons materials;
4. Accidental Death shall not in any way be presumed by reason of the disappearance of the Insured Person except in the event of the total loss by the shipwreck of the ship or air crash of the aircraft in which the Insured Person was traveling except as provided for in the Extension. The onus of proof of the Accident and the disappearance of the Insured Person as provided for in the Extensions shall in all cases rest with the claimant;
5. This Policy does not cover Cosmetic (aesthetic), Plastic or Reconstructive Surgery/Treatment, or any treatment which relates to or is needed because of previous cosmetic treatment, except as necessitated due to an event covered by the Policy;
6. This Policy does not cover any person under the age of twenty-one (21) years or over the age of sixty (60) unless otherwise agreed and specified in the Schedule
Offered Period starts from 1 June 2018 till 31 May 2019
*Note: Terms and Conditions apply
Corporate Benefit Code:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Think New York is an exceptional city? It's not. The Big Apple is just about average for a city of its size. However, San Francisco is exceptional. Its inhabitants are wealthier, more productive, more innovative, and subject to fewer crimes than you would expect, given its size.
Turns out many of the cities we typically think of as great ones probably wouldn't show up near the top of most rankings, if Luis Bettencourt of the Santa Fe Institute has his way. He and his colleagues believe traditional per-capita measures are not very useful for determining what makes one city better or worse than another because they don't treat separately the roles population size and local character play in making it so.
In their paper published in PLoS ONE, they propose ditching per-capita comparisons for more scientific ones that take into account the natural advantages of larger cities. The research team includes Jose Lobo of Arizona State University, Deborah Strumsky of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Geoffrey West, and Bettencourt. West and Bettencourt are theoretical physicists affiliated with both the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Big cities naturally have a statistical advantage because the agglomeration of people, more intense social interactions, and better developed infrastructures naturally invoke efficiencies and speed up the pace at which things happen, Bettencourt says. The researchers have shown, in fact, that with each doubling of city population, each inhabitant is, on average, 15 percent wealthier, 15 percent more productive, 15 percent more innovative, and 15 percent more likely to be victimized by violent crime, regardless of the city's geography or the decade in which you pull the data.
Scientists call this phenomenon "superlinear scaling." Rather than metrics increasing proportionally with population -- in a "linear," or one-for-one fashion -- measures that scale superlinearly increase consistently at a nonlinear rate greater than one for one.
"Almost anything you can measure about a city scales nonlinearly," Bettencourt says. "This is the reason we have cities in the first place. But if you don't correct for these effects, you are not capturing the essence of particular places."
As part of their study, the researchers developed scale-adjusted metropolitan indicators (SAMIs) that allowed them to compare the socioeconomic performance of large, midsized, and smaller U.S. cities.
By their measures, they found that exceptionality, both over- and under-performance, tends to be persistent. That is, when a city is more or less wealthy or more or less crime-ridden than its size suggests, it tends to stay that way for decades.
They also found that some features tend to pair up, such as wealth and safety; a wealthy but dangerous town like Fairbanks, Alaska is rare, as is a poor but safe city like Provo, Utah.
And they found that highly exceptional cities tend to be smaller and more monocultural, such as Corvallis, Oregon, which boasts a high number of patents for its size as well as a large Hewlett-Packard lab.
"If we used per-capita comparisons, we would have seen different exceptions, with a bias towards many more large cities ranking closer to the top," Bettencourt says.
So what does a city's ranking matter? In and of itself, not much, he says. But when a city is under- or over-performing the expectations for its size, it is doing something uniquely right or wrong. Understanding what that is provides essential clues as to how a city can improve or further capitalize on its successes, he says.
"Our results reveal in a new, scientifically based way what is truly exceptional about a particular city, including the influence of its history, its policy choices, the consequences of its local flavor, the outcome of which can now be measured quantitatively," he says. "Our hope is that this perspective and methodology can help us better understand cities and design more science-based and effective policy."
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Materials provided by Public Library of Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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text:
Earnings Preview for Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is set to report earnings after the close of trading today. With the pressure on public spending and with the slowing economy, one has to wonder just how good this company's first quarter earnings can be. The growing consensus is that the backward looking earnings report will be ok but that the guidance should be soft or full of uncertainty.
Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.46 EPS and $11.79 billion in revenue. With the coming fiscal cliff impacting government spending by so much, we expect Cisco to offer a wider range for its guidance ahead and we also expect that many caveats will be included along the lines of how unpredictable the spending cuts may be on equipment. Thomson Reuters has estimates for the second quarter ending in January 2013 as $0.48 EPS and $12.07 billion in revenue.
J.P. Morgan downgraded Cisco just last Friday and that rating was cut to Neutral from Overweight. The current price of $16.82 compares to a 52-week range of $14.96 to $21.30. We have also seen some growing caution from RBC and MKM Partners without any formal ratings changes. The consensus price target from Thomson Reuters is already lower than what we saw on Friday as the current price target is $21.53. We would warn that this upside target may still be a bit ambitious as this mean target is above its 52-week high.
On the charts it needs to be addressed that Cisco's 50-day moving average is $18.36 and the 200-day moving average is $18.22.
Based in the current month put and call options, our calculation is that options traders are braced for a move of about $0.65 or so in either direction.
As far as a chart reading, we already gave the overhang above via the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. More recently, the stock has been using the current $16.75 to $16.80 as support and there is a larger resistance up at about $17.50. If the trading levels going back to summer hold any bearing, there could literally be nothing but dead air down to $16.00 or $15.75 if the news is deemed negatively. If the news is somehow far worse than what we have expected then much more firm support would likely be down around $15.00, just above its 52-week low.
Now that Cisco has seen its share price get hit along with other tech giants the dividend is yielding 3.3% for its common stock.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Earnings, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: CSCO


text:
I've been neglecting this pastry journal of ours for a long while, but at last I'm bringing it to life again.
The last few months have been busy and lazy in the same time. We visited my sister in France but this wasn't the usual trip to Paris since she moved to a small village near La Rochelle.
Although I do missed Paris and all the rumpus there I found the sojourn extremely relaxing and quite charming.
What a shame, the region was really lacking good patisseries, but there were other goodies that more than made up for this nuisance.
The markets in La Rochelle were exuberant with oysters, greatly appreciated by Ivan who even bought an oyster knife and became impressively proficient in using it. We devoted ourselves to decadent delights such as wine, pineau des Charentes, cognac, walks in the fields, wandering about the small paths between the villages, kisses in the rain...
It was autumn but the pastures and fields were so green and vivid, just like these macarons.
Although a typically French treats these macarons have somewhat of a Japanese sound.
Matcha Macarons with Shiro-an – Kuro Goma Filling Recipe:
- 35 gr egg whites;
- 95 gr almond meal;
- 95 gr confectioner's sugar;
- 8 gr matcha tea powder;
- 35 gr egg whites;
- 95 gr granulated sugar;
- 30 gr water.
Make the Italian meringue. In a saucepan combine water and granulated sugar and bring to a boil. When the syrup reaches 115ºC, in a separate bowl, start beating the second portion of egg whites to soft peaks. Once the syrup reaches 118ºC, pour it slowly on to the whites, beating all the time. Keep beating till the mixture cools to 50ºC. Remove the beaters.
Fold the Italian meringue into the confectioners' sugar-ground almonds-egg whites mixture.
Line 2 baking sheets with silpat. I prefer silpat to paper regarding the end result – I find that macarons baked on silpat have better feet, but this is only according to my humble opinion.
Pour the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (we use № 7) and pipe about 3 cm large rounds leaving 2cm space between them. Tap the pan on the counter several times to bring up any air bubbles.
Let the macarons rest to form a skin. At the end they should not be tacky on touch.
Preheat the oven to 160º C. Bake for around 13 - 14 minutes. During baking quickly open and shut the oven door twice to let the steam escape.
Remove from the silpat and let cool on a wire rack. Store the shells in an airtight container.
For the White Bean – Black Sesame Paste Filling:
- 60 gr kuro goma (black sesame) paste;
- 100 gr unsweetened shiro-an (white bean paste)*:
- 25 gr butter, room temperature;
- 15 gr honey.
* I find the shiro-an (white bean paste) too sweet, so I made it myself. I soaked lima beans in water for 12 hours, then boiled them till soft, drained the water, peeled the beans and discarded the skins. Then I passed the beans through a mesh strainer and that was it.
However, on the Wagashi Maniac blog there is a wonderful article and recipe regarding the making of shiro-an.


text:
Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Cinematography by Remi Adefarasin.
Starring Fanny Ardant, Richard Attenborough, Cate Blanchett,
Eric Cantona, Vincent Cassel, Daniel Craig, Christopher Eccleston,
Joseph Fiennes, James Frain, John Gielgud and Geoffrey Rush.
Original DVD framegrab photographs by Will Holub 2014.
Click on any of the labels below to see related posts.


text:
we'll look through the trees at the cliff, and the eyrie,
We'll tread round the rath on the track of the fairy,
We'll look on the stars, and we'll list to the river,
Till you ask of your darling what gift you can give her.
Oh! she'll whisper you, "Love as unchangeably beaming,
And trust, when in secret , most tunefully streaming,
Till the starlight of heaven above us shall quiver,
As our souls flow in one down eternity's river."
Thomas Davis
we will all miss you mom


text:
Travertine floor tiles are very appealing but without the protection of a sealer they will soon suffer, fortunately this can be remedied as demonstrated in these pictures of a Tumbled Travertine floor at a house in the Village of Clophill in the Flit River Valley South of Bedford.
This customer had called me out as her ten year old floor was looking very sorry for itself and she was concerned that a lot of holes were appearing which was making cleaning of the floor difficult as dirt was getting trapped in the holes. I went over and carried out a test clean on two separate tiles in the kitchen and the customer was amazed at how clean they came up and especially the grout. An appointment was made for the next month and work commenced.
Cleaning a stained Tumbled Travertine tiled floor
The first thing we do is to protect the lovely Oak kitchen units by removing plinths, covering base units and appliances with a protective film. We then commenced work by burnishing the stone with a set of Tile Doctor Diamond encrusted burnishing pads. The pads are applied individually to each tile in sequence starting with a coarse pad and finishing with the fine pad which brings up the polish. A little waster is used to lubricate the process along the way and the floor is rinsed in-between each pad with the resulting residue extracted from the floor using a wet vacuum. The process takes quite some time but the results are well worth the effort.
Once this was done our attention was turned to the grout which being recessed is difficult to reach by with pads. So for the grout a medium dilution of Tile Doctor Pro-Clean is applied to the grout lines and scrubbed in with stiff brushes by hand.
The floor was rinsed again and fans were used to assist drying before filling the holes with the same filler the customer had used previously to match the colour of the stone as much as possible.
Sealing a Travertine tiled floor
When we returned the next day the floor had dried and we were able to give the floor a final polish with a very fine burnishing pad. The floor was then sealed with two coats of Tile Doctor Ultra Seal which provides excellent protection without changing the colour of the stone to provide a natural look.
"We had several rooms of very dirty travertine tiles that were deep cleaned, filled and re sealed. The floor now looks amazing. Fantastic job by a professional and friendly team."


text: Ikumou Hair Grower ShampooIngredients: Gugo, Omega 3, Lavender, Biotin, Peppermint, Aloe Barbadensis, Centella, Asiatica, Moringa Oleifera (Malunggay), Zingiber Officianale (Ginger), Panax Ginseng, Rosemary and Virgin Coconut Oil as our main base. How to use: Apply to wet hair, massage into a lather, rinse. For best result use it for several months. How does the hair grow? The hair goes through a cycle which lasts for about 2 to 6 years. Each hair grows about 1 cm a month. Under normal condition, 90% of the hair in your scalp is in the growth phase and 10% is in the resting phase. The resting hair will fall out after 2 to 3 months and new hair will start to grow in its place.If hair fall is part of a normal process of hair growth cycle, when does it become abnormal? It is normal to shed 50 to 100 strands each day as part of the hair growth cycle. Beyond this number is considered abnormal.What causes excessive hair loss? Factors such as hereditary disorders, illness, major surgery, hormonal problems, child birth and delivery, medications, infections, stress, air pollutants, and too much exposure to sunlight may cause excessive hair loss.What are the psychological and social effects of hair loss/hair thinning? Excessive hair loss is common in men and women and is viewed as part of aging. Often, men feel less attractive and less masculine when losing hair. Women find it socially disturbing to have thin hair or bald patches.What can stop or prevent hair loss? Treatment will depend on the type of hair loss, but keeping the hair and scalp clean is important in preventing hair fall. If you are taking medicines that cause hair loss, then your doctor can prescribe a different medicine. Also, treating an infection or any fungal scalp condition may help stop hair loss. You may also use shampoo or scalp lotion that could provide nourishment to your scalp, stop hair fall and stimulate hair growth. What is IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® Ikumou Hair Grower Shampoo® penetrates deep to rejuvenate, nourish and maintain moisture in the scalp and hair. By improving the blood circulation in the scalp, IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®stimulates hair growth and prevents further hair fall. IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® also improves the overall appearance of the hair.Is IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® effective in treating hair loss?Yes, IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® is effective in treating hair loss. IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® is a combining highly potent standardized herbs with essential oils and co-factor nutrients, especially chosen for their hair growing properties. IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® penetrates to rejuvenate the hair follicles, provides optimum nutrition to help combat hair loss and/or thinning of hair, improves blood circulation to the scalp and thus contributes to the stimulation of hair growth.Aside from preventing hair fall and stimulating hair growth, IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® provides nourishment to the scalp. It also maintains moisture in hair and scalp, thus eliminates dandruff and alleviates scalp itchiness. It also has a cleansing effect and becomes an anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory solution. It prevents premature graying of hair, as well. How much time does one have to wait to see the effects of using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®?With consistent daily use of at least two times a day for 4-6 weeks, you can look forward to the benefits of IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOOH® in preventing hair loss, retarding further hair thinning and improving the overall cosmetic properties of your hair. Increased number of hair growth will be noticeable mostly on the 4th month, depending on the commitment and frequency of usage. Is IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® safe to use?Yes, IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOOH®is safe because it is made of natural components that do not cause any harmful side effects.Are there any contraindications from using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® As a matter of precaution, IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® is not recommended to pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under 12 years old, and people who have allergic reactions to any of its components.Can IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® be used for chemically-treated hair?As a rule of thumb, any person with chemically treated hair or has undergone any salon treatment may use IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® but must observe a resting period of 2-4 weeks if the salon chemical treatment used might produce any allergies or hypersensitivities. This is recommended to be able to identify with certainty the real cause of the adverse reaction/s and not put the blame on IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®. All the active ingredients of IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® are natural and safe. However, we can't vouch for the safety profile of salon treatments. While on IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®, the person needs to refrain using any hair products with high concentrations of chemicals for this may defeat the purpose. Should the person opt to have another salon treatment while on IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® treatment, the person should stop using the IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®.If one is currently using another hair growth solution, how soon can he/she start using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®? A person should stop using the other hair growth solution for 1 month before he/she can start using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO®.What hair products should be avoided in using the IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOOWhen using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOOH®, it is advised to avoid using hair spray, gel, wax, or mousse. It is also highly advised to use herbal-based shampoo – IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® Can I stop using IKUMOU HAIR GROWER SHAMPOO® after achieving the desired results?After achieving the desired results, you may pause for two (2) months then start another treatment for the next 2-8 months..


text:
Google, like most Silicon Valley companies, has a big diversity problem. One of the biggest is the relative lack of women -- particularly in the executive ranks.
Just 30% of Googlers are women, according to a report on the company's diversity issued Wednesday. Interestingly, about 48% of the company's non-tech jobs are held by women. But Google's higher-paying engineering and leadership positions are far more male-dominated.
Only 17% of Google's engineers are female, and women make up just 21% of the company's leadership. Three of 10 Google directors are female, but only one of the company's top 12 executives -- YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki -- is a woman.
Notably, two of Google's most famous female employees left the company for more prominent roles: Facebook (FB) chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer.
"Women are half the world's population," Google noted in its report. "We've got to increase their participation in computer science and keep women at Google on the path to leadership."
Related: Google is overwhelmingly white and male
Google is hardly alone. Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Dell, eBay (EBAY) and Ingram Micro (IM) all struggle to attract women as well, according to government diversity reports obtained by CNNMoney last year. Most other technology companies do not make their demographic data public.
In fact, Cisco and Intel have a lower percentage of women -- each around 25% -- in their ranks. About 31% of the employees at Dell are women. Ingram Micro and eBay are the closest to gender equity, with more than 40% of their workers being female.
But Silicon Valley companies are missing a big opportunity by failing to attract women to their ranks. Women are more active Internet users than men, and they are far more engaged in social media, according to the Pew Research Center. That means most Internet companies' customers are women, but the engineers, designers, coders and executives making the products are predominantly men.
"It's a business problem for them, because they don't know what their customers truly want," said Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit that offers computer science education to middle school and high school girls. "It's not gender for the sake of gender."
Though tech companies could be doing more to hire qualified women, the blame is not theirs alone. The problem starts early on ... in school.
Only 17% of high school students who take the Advanced Placement Computer Science test are girls, according to the College Board. Fewer than 13% of computer science graduates are women, according to the Computer Research Association. And that's down from 37% in 1984.
Related: Black, female, and a Silicon Valley 'trade secret'
Silicon Valley's notorious culture of sexism is not helping either. That has come to the forefront lately, notably at last year's TechCrunch Disrupt technology conference, when engineers at a hackathon unveiled apps that promoted masturbation and staring at women's breasts. And Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S4 smartphone last year at a widely criticized event in New York, where the company portrayed women as technologically illiterate.
Leaving women out of high-paying tech jobs means fewer opportunities for them to succeed in a fragile economic recovery.
"It's crucial for Google to diversify in order to reflect the gender and demographic makeup of the current and projected U.S. workforce -- and truly be an 'equal opportunity employer,'" said Laura DiDio, principal analyst at tech consultancy ITIC.
To Google's credit, the company isn't taking its report lightly. Google said that it has started programs like The Google Women in Engineering Network and Women@Google to provide networking and professional development resources for more than 4,000 female Google employees.
Google also found women were less likely to advance through the ranks, so the company began notifying women about the issue and encouraging them to throw their hands up for promotions. The number of female applicants for promotions grew as a result.
Tech companies have also backed programs such as Girls Who Code, and TechGirlz, a similar week-long program in Philadelphia. Microsoft (MSFT) even started its own tech summer camp for girls called DigiGirlz.
But Google and the rest of Silicon Valley have a long way to remedy their massive gender gap.


text:
Lenovo's work on mobile phones with Google's Android operating system is focused on its high-end Lephone handset, but the company also wants to reach other price points, a company executive said Thursday.
Lenovo is likely to move in that direction in the second half of this year, Rory Read, the company's chief operating officer, said when asked about plans for more Android handsets during a financial results call. Lenovo last month announced the Android-powered Lephone, which it called key to its mobile strategy. The company has added a focus on mobile devices since reacquiring Lenovo Mobile, its handset division, from a group of private investors in recent months.
Read's comments came as Lenovo, China's top PC maker, reported higher sales and net profit in its third fiscal quarter, one year after announcing a major restructuring.
When asked if Lenovo was considering offering a service like Apple's popular App Store for downloading mobile applications, Read said Lenovo was working with companies across China on mobile Internet content for its devices.
Besides the Lephone, Lenovo also recently announced its Skylight smartbook, a low-cost mini-laptop, and a laptop called the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid that has a detachable touchscreen. The company said lightweight PCs that stay online all day are another key part of its mobile efforts.
Lenovo plans to start selling the Lephone in China in May, followed by other countries. The company has said it is developing other Android phones.
Lenovo's new direction has come as it has recovered from a string of weak financial results. Lenovo reported sales of $4.8 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, a rise of 33 percent from a year earlier.
It posted a net profit of $80 million, compared to a net loss of $97 million a year earlier. The figure was also up from Lenovo's net profit of $53 million in the previous quarter, before which it had posted three consecutive quarterly net losses.
Lenovo's sales growth stayed strongest in China and other emerging markets, where it refocused its efforts in a restructuring last year. Last year it also announced nearly 3,000 lay-offs as financial crisis in Western countries cut into its sales in developed markets .
Lenovo's sales in its most recent quarter were up 45 percent from a year earlier in China and 53 percent in other emerging markets, compared to 13 percent in mature markets.


text:
SALT LAKE CITY — Against his better judgment, Richard Bourret agreed to join a friend on an archaeological dig at an asbestos dump in southeastern Utah.
Bourret told Vern Crites, a well-known Native American artifacts dealer in Durango, Colo., that it was a bad idea. He was relieved when Crites' "good friend" Ted initially called off the trip to San Juan County. But weeks later, Crites told him Ted had called several times and insisted they dig.
At the time, Bourret, 62, also of Durango, said in court documents, he thought no one would care about digging near a dump. It turned out to be a life-altering mistake.
Using shovels on that September 2008 day, he and Crites unearthed human remains, pottery sherds and a knife. Crites' friend Ted, the third member of their party, turned out to be Ted Gardiner, an undercover government informant.
Federal agents eventually arrested Bourret, Crites and two dozen others in the largest Indian artifacts trafficking
case in the country. Bourret and Crites pleaded guilty to a felony for illegal excavation.
Bourret was among the first defendants to reach a plea agreement, the latest being Blanding school teacher David A. Lacy who admitted last week to selling a turkey feather blanket and a prehistoric women's apron to Gardiner.
In all, FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents arrested 25 people in June 2009 after a nearly three-year undercover sting operation. To date, 21 have pleaded guilty to reduced charges related to digging, stealing, selling or trafficking in Native American antiquities. All were placed on some form of probation. Two cases are pending. Two defendants killed themselves.
And there could be more arrests.
BLM assistant special agent in charge Dan Love said the case remains active. Indictments in other states are pending, he said.
As the case winds down in Utah, sharp differences remain over whether it was worth it.
Too soft? Too harsh?
Critics call it costly overkill, in terms of tax dollars spent but more so in the lives it ruined. Three men — including Gardiner, the government informant — committed suicide. Some lost jobs, friendships and marriages.
And ultimately, no one went to prison.
"So that tells you what kind of case it really was," said San Juan County Commission Chairman Bruce Adams. "It was a property-rights case. It was not a high-profile criminal type case. … They did not hold anybody up. They did not point a gun at anybody. It was not armed robbery. Someone took someone else's property."
Some, like Crites, had vast artifacts collections and were deep into buying, selling and trading. Others like Bourret unwittingly joined a friend on an illegal dig.
"I realize that my actions have had a detrimental impact, and that what I did was a grave insult to many Native Americans," Bourret wrote before a federal judge sentenced him to 36 months probation. "To disturb cultural resources and disrespect one's cultural heritage, as I did, is very wrong."
Forrest Cuch, former state Division of Indian Affairs director, said he was impressed with how federal authorities apprehended and prosecuted the artifacts collectors.
But, he said, "I was very disappointed with the federal court rulings. I think they were far too soft on them. Some should have had jail time."
Federal authorities call the operation a success because it recovered illegally obtained Native American antiquities, raised public awareness and serves as a deterrent to so-called pot-hunters.
"I don't think we need to distance ourselves from those sentences," said U.S. Attorney for Utah Carlie Christensen. "I think given the facts and the circumstances where you look at the nature of the crime, you look at the deterrent effect, you look at their criminal history, I think the sentences they received were appropriate."
Six different federal judges handled the cases. And whether or not they talked among themselves, they were aware of each other's sentences and seemed to make a conscious effort to be consistent. Judge Ted Stewart remarked in one hearing that his sentence was in line with those handed down in other cases.
Salt Lake attorney and former BLM director Pat Shea suggested Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch might have pressured judges to see that none of the defendants serve prison time. Hatch, through a spokesman, denied the accusation.
"There's no truth to that whatsoever," said Mark Eddington, Hatch spokesman.
Lead federal prosecutor Richard McKelvie said the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah never expected prison time for what amounted to property crimes.
"If we have a beef with a sentence, we can appeal it," he said. "Significantly, we haven't chosen to appeal any of the sentences here."
In addition to probation, those convicted of felonies give up the right to own guns or vote. All the defendants had to forfeit their artifacts collections, regardless of how they came to possess them.
That these were property crimes isn't lost on Adams.
"It was a property-rights case. It was not treated as a property-rights case in my opinion," he said. "Those folks were treated as if they were hardened criminals."
Archaeologist Jerry Spangler said looting is a big problem in rural communities and people are profiting from it. But, he said, it isn't taken seriously.
"We're losing our heritage at an alarming rate and there doesn't seem to be much impetus from the legal side of things to make the penalty such that it would deter people," he said. "That's part of the education problem we have. It is a serious crime."
Government informant
From the outset, the FBI and the BLM ran what they dubbed Operation Cerebus Action like a drug case, McKelvie said.
The agencies sent in an undercover informant, Ted Gardiner, a longtime artifacts dealer who ingratiated himself to collectors and traders over 2½ years.
Critics of the operation question Gardiner's credibility due to his history of drug, mental health and financial problems. McKelvie says although Gardiner had illicit dealings in the artifacts trade, he was never prosecuted and had no criminal charges against him when he became an informant.
Gardiner wore a wire and transmitted live video and audio to federal agents who monitored his transactions. He ultimately spent $335,685 on 358 items including pottery, blankets, ceremonial masks, sandals and jewelry. Authorities paid him $7,500 a month — $224,000 total — for his surreptitious work.
Dace Hyatt, a restoration expert from Show Low, Ariz., was scheduled to testify as an expert witness for a defendant in the case. He and other members of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association held a panel discussion on the artifacts case at a trade show in Santa Fe, N.M., last month.
A friend of Gardiner for nearly 20 years, Hyatt said federal authorities should not have relied on a person who had serious financial problems, which may have added pressure for him to create cases.
"In my opinion, he stooped to levels of misrepresenting the truth, embellishing and lying and that's unfortunate because you would think there would be more checks and balances within the (federal) departments to credit or discredit his statements before they orchestrated an entire 2½-year sting operation that cost the taxpayers — I would be willing to speculate millions of dollars — to only come up with 26 indictments. That's the travesty," Hyatt said.
Gardiner's son, Dustin Gardiner, has defended his father, saying he became disillusioned with the antiquities business when he saw the number of stolen items being sold. His father, he said, wanted to stop the digging and grave robbing and preserve history.
The raid
When it came time to make arrests, authorities, relying on Gardiner's information, stuck with the drug case game plan.
About 150 agents wearing bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons descended on homes in the Four Corners area on June 10, 2009. Agents searched the houses of suspected artifacts traffickers and placed people in handcuffs and shackles and drove them to face a federal magistrate in Moab.
Politicians like Adams, who said the FBI and BLM used "Gestapo" tactics, and others complained of heavy-handed treatment, especially when it came to people in their 70s.
Love said the BLM and FBI vetted each warrant beforehand and after hearing that some of those whom they planned to arrest had guns, took precautions to safeguard themselves and others.
"I would be hard-pressed to find any law enforcement officer across the country that when serving an arrest warrant or a search warrant isn't properly geared," he said.
Christensen said the raid was conducted so as not to tip off any of the targets, to keep people from destroying evidence and to prevent them from fleeing.
"This was a blueprint for how you do it," she said. "It was textbook."
Hatch, a vocal critic of the raid from the outset, didn't see it that way, and two years later still doesn't.
"I had concerns with the manner in which some federal officers, acting under the direction of the Department of Interior, conducted the search and arrest warrants in the operation that took place in San Juan County," the senator said. "I still believe that the operation was not handled as well as it should have been and was not representative of the cautious enforcement that I've come to expect from our federal law enforcement agencies."
Three suicides
Among the two dozen arrested that day was Dr. James Redd, a well-known Blanding doctor and longtime pot-hunter. The next day, the 60-year-old man connected a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car to asphyxiate himself.
His widow, Jeanne, said in a wrongful death suit filed in May, that FBI and BLM agents' "excessive, overreaching and abusive treatment" pushed her husband to suicide. She claims that agents "manhandled" her husband and interrogated him for hours in the garage.
But Love said it didn't appear that Dr. Redd had any animosity or anger toward authorities as a result of the investigation or the way he was treated that day. In fact, he said Redd shook his hand and thanked him for being treated with respect and dignity.
A month after Redd's death, one his former patients threatened to beat Gardiner with a baseball bat "to make the (undercover) source pay" for causing the doctor's death, according to court documents. Federal agents became aware of the threat and indicted Charles D. Armstrong. He was sentenced to a year in prison.
Ten days after the raid, another defendant, Stephen L. Shrader, shot himself to death.
Shrader, 56, was not arrested with the others. He read about the arrests in the newspaper and walked into the BLM office in Santa Fe, N.M., to tell authorities he knew of another person involved in trafficking: Ted Gardiner, the confidential informant.
Agents ultimately arrested Shrader on an outstanding warrant and charged him with allegedly taking an ancient pair of sandals and basket from public land.
McKelvie said while tragic, the deaths can't be connected to how agents treated the defendants.
"He was not arrested as part of the raid. He was not subject to a search. Nobody came into his house at 6 o'clock in the morning with guns and took him away," McKelvie said.
"If you look at the two suicides and try to couple them with the concept of jack-booted thugs kicking down doors at 6 in the morning and putting people in handcuffs, it was simply not the case. The fact that the suicides happened when they did really fed that kind of frenzy of the overreaching government."
In March 2010, Gardiner, 52, became the third person associated with the case to take his own life. According to a Unified Police Department report, he was upset over his involvement in the case and believed "he had killed two people."
San Juan County still has not regrouped from the deaths and the arrests, Adams said.
Federal authorities, he said, came into the raid with the notion, " 'We're going to scare the hell out of people.' Is that really the role of government? … That's what they did in (Nazi) Germany."
Residents in southeastern Utah remain suspicious of the FBI and BLM. Said Adams, "I don't think it will ever go away."
e-mail: email@example.com Twitter: dennisromboy


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The Hidden Power of Nofollow Links
The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
A few years ago, while I was still on the client side of things, I received an email from a blogger I was working with. As part of our fledgling link building program, my company had been sending out free products in exchange for a review and link to our site. Oldest trick in the book, right? However, the blogger's email threw me off: she told me her policy was to nofollow links, and asked if this would be all right.
"Uh, sure," I eloquently responded, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about, "just as long as there's a link!" I then scrambled to look up just what in the heck a nofollow link was, and roughly five minutes later started cursing at my monitor. We'd just invested thirty bucks in a completely useless link!
While that may have been my viewpoint back then, my opinion on nofollow links has changed. Obviously, for those of us who are trying to earn links for our clients, receiving a nofollow link can feel like a slap in the face. But these links have hidden powers that make them just as important as followed ones.
Here's why nofollow links are more powerful than you might think.
Links build awareness
A link has a few different connotations these days. It could mean, "this is an article that supports my viewpoint, and you might benefit by reading it, too." It could mean, "I do a lot of shopping here, and I think you should look at their cute dresses." Or it could simply mean, "I like cat videos!" But at its very core, a link is designed to create awareness of something on a different page.
When you're out there trying to make people aware of your business, links are hugely important. SEO companies now offer link building services because businesses realize how important they are. So to that busy CEO who sees his or her website traffic dipping, and believes that links will give them a way to get back on top, a successful link building campaign is going to be really desirable.
That busy CEO is probably going to flip out if you say "well, we got 50 new links this month, and 40 of them were nofollow." But it's important that neither you nor the CEO (nor their marketing team) discredit the power of a nofollow link. Links still build awareness, as long as they are seen. They don't have to be followed. They probably don't even have to be clicked! They just have to be visible.
How many times a day do you see someone you follow tweet a link to an article with an interesting headline? Let's say the article is really well written, and is on a site you don't currently follow. So you add them to your feed reader. A week later, you think "oh, you know, that post I read is really relevant to this blog post I'm working on now!" So you link to it in your post. This accomplishes two things: one, it probably negates that original nofollow link from Twitter (more on that shortly), and two, it has made both you and your followers aware of that site.
Links lead to profit
A nofollow link can also directly lead to someone spending money on your company's products or services. If you consistently create awareness and engage with people, those nofollow links may earn you way more than domain authority. Don't believe me? Here's the story of how I became a paying Buffer customer.
A few months ago, I saw a tweet with a link to this case study about how Buffer responded to being hacked. I had no idea what Buffer was, but it gave me an idea for a blog post. After I wrote my post, I followed Buffer on Twitter. I engaged with them a few times (for example, mentioning them after my post went up), and they engaged right back.
Over the next few weeks, I visited the Buffer blog when they tweeted links to new posts, learned about their company, and admired the heck out of their content marketing skills. I'd say it was at about the two month mark that I decided to actually give them a try. A month later, I upgraded to the Awesome plan and began using it daily to manage not only my accounts, but also our agency's accounts.
To recap, this is how it all went down:
- I became aware of Buffer through someone else's Twitter link
- I followed Buffer on Twitter
- I engaged with their content
- I tried, subscribed, and ended up forking over $10 a month (well worth it!)
This was all because of a single nofollow link. Over the course of three months, my general awareness turned into lifetime value for Buffer. That one nofollow link directly led to profit.
You can make an equation out of this:
a + e = p
Awareness + engagement = profit. By becoming aware of Buffer, and having opportunities to engage regularly with them, I converted into a paying customer. This all happened because of social media, and all those links you see on social media are nofollow. (Who said there's no ROI in Twitter?!)
Links lead to more links
A few years ago, Joshua Unseth wrote a post for YouMoz explaining how a single nofollow link earned him a second link that was followed, increased his traffic, and boosted his article to the top of the SERPs for a specific phrase. His post, titled "The Importance of nofollow Links," has a really great conclusion that stresses the importance of even a single link:
To put it into context, of the people that came to the article as a direct or indirect result of the nofollow, ~1% made a comment on the article itself, and ~2% blogged about it – actually, if you count this article, then the results were blogged about by 3% of the visitors.
While I don't think that these numbers would hold on a site with more viewers, I think that they represent the way in which content ends up going viral. In the end, ALL IT TAKES IS ONE LINK, and its follow status doesn't seem to make a difference.
I couldn't say it any better! What Joshua wrote still holds true today – and in fact may be even truer, considering how many of us use Twitter to amplify messages and blog posts we enjoy, or rely on a feed reader to provide us with interesting content that we want to share on our websites.
Here's a real-life example of the potential power of a single nofollow link. Back in March, we published two maps showing the ISP landscape in the United States, and how the potential Comcast buyout of Time-Warner would affect it. The post was picked up by the Amazing_Maps Twitter account, which has more than 160,000 followers.
This was a nofollow link, obviously, as were the retweets that followed.
Two days later, we made it to the front page of the Huffington Post.
After HuffPo picked up the story, the maps spread to several other websites, most of which had followed links back to our blog post or homepage. But even if those links hadn't been followed, we still would have created new awareness of WebpageFX, our blog, and the work we do.
Like Joshua said: it only takes one. One link can lead to many.
How to make the most of your nofollow links
"Okay, Nicole," I can hear you skeptics saying, "I'm on board. nofollow links are powerful. Magical, even. But you don't see any of my tweets getting picked up by HuffPo."
Well, food for thought: we've published hundreds of blog posts, and only one of them led to a Twitter link (not ours) that led to HuffPo. Success on the Internet is all about being at the right place with the right content at the right time, and with all of the blogs, websites, and companies vying for attention, your chance at getting noticed is lower than low.
Here are some ways that you can make the most of your nofollow links, whether they're on social media, someone's blog, or elsewhere.
Motivate viewers to click your link. This might mean testing headlines, trying different tweets, or coming right out and saying, "look, if you click this, this cool thing will happen." For example, Buffer found that one tweet earned a blog post 100% more clicks than another, just because they changed the language surrounding the link.
Increase your audience. Want more people to see, click, and act on your nofollow link? Get a bigger audience. This may be as simple as following industry figureheads who are likely to follow you back, directly asking for shares, or sharing your post multiple times. Try emailing people of authority and asking (nicely) for them to check out your content. If it's really good, it may earn you a share.
Another trick: if you write blog posts or product content that references someone else, make sure they know about it. It may seem like you're just trying to stroke their ego, but it works. If someone wrote a blog post about me, heck yeah I'd tweet the link out to everybody I knew! (Unless it was bad. Then I'd just cry.)
Ensure your link is relevant. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects of a nofollow link. So many links on social media go unclicked simply because the content isn't relevant to them. This one is hard to control, because it's pretty difficult to know when your audience is going to be in the mood for your blog posts vs. photos of puppies, but you can still get ahead by thinking very carefully about what you share, when, and why.
Make sure your content is relevant, too. Okay, so your link got clicked. Great! But your bounce rate is at 99%. Not great. You can write the best headline in the world, but if the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is empty, nobody's going to stick around. Avoid misleading headlines, unfulfilling content, or just plain marketing to the wrong people.
This is honestly the biggest flaw of the ISP map I linked above. Lots of people checked out the maps, and even visited our blog to see the rest of the study, but then they left. Probably 99% of our visitors to that post have no idea who WebpageFX is and what we do. That doesn't mean the content was bad, but it just wasn't relevant to the kind of audience we want to attract (that is, potential clients).
Optimize your landing pages. What do you want someone to do after they visit your link? What's the next step for this visitor? Keep them around a little longer. Use a related posts plugin to provide some additional reading, or try a service like snip.ly to suggest relevant content or links.
Don't complain. If someone gives you a link and it's nofollow, please don't storm into their inbox with guns blazing. Maybe they just don't know you well enough to follow your links yet. If you're cool about it, the second link they give you may be a followed one. And even if it isn't, you're still getting exposure out of it, right?
A nofollow link isn't the end of the world
As SEO professionals, I know we're all aiming for followed links that pass a lot of "juice" to the websites of our clients. If we all had our way, earning links would be easy, every link would be followed, and Google would never, ever penalize websites for having too many links, or too many links of a certain type. We would all have millions of dollars, and would spend our days on the beach drinking fancy cocktails. Unfortunately... that's just not the way things are.
Honestly, a nofollow link isn't the end of the world, either for you or for a client. These links are valuable, and important for anyone trying to build their brand online. As I've shown, they hold significant power, and more than you might expect.
Instead of focusing on whether or not a link is followed, we should do our best to get those links in front of the right people at the right time, crafting content beyond the link that motivates conversions. As it is for everything in SEO, obtaining links is all about balance: the balance between followed and not followed, "juicy" links and dry ones.
In my case, that nofollow link I talked about at the beginning of this post went live, the blogger was happy with her product, and the review she wrote was fantastic. It led to a fairly high amount of clicks through to our site… and what do you know, even a few purchases. Seeing was believing for me, and now I'm an advocate of earning links in general – not just the followed ones.
Image Credit: Public domain images from Pixabay (links, beach); cat screencap from Maru's YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/mugumogu); Twitter & snip.ly screencaps I took; Buffer blog (source linked in post)


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Dec 12, 2010
Main topic: Max Baber of USGIF. News: Climate, Glonass, and SpaceX.
A VerySpatial Podcast is your weekly source for information on Geography and geospatial technologies. Geography touches most things we do everyday and geospatial technologies are taking over the world. This podcast seeks to point out how geo is filtering into our digital lives and daily lives.
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There's a fair reason to think so and a not-so-fair reason. First, the not-so-fair:
Scalia's dissent, at least on first quick perusal, reads like it was originally written as a majority opinion (in particular, he consistently refers to Justice Ginsburg's opinion as "The Dissent"). Back in May, there were rumors floating around relevant legal circles that a key vote was taking place, and that Roberts was feeling tremendous pressure from unidentified circles to vote to uphold the mandate. Did Roberts originally vote to invalidate the mandate on commerce clause grounds, and to invalidate the Medicaid expansion, and then decide later to accept the tax argument and essentially rewrite the Medicaid expansion (which, as I noted, citing Jonathan Cohn, was the sleeper issue in this case) to preserve it?
Scroll down to page 138 of the justices' opinions to see Ginsburg's opinion described as a "dissent." Minor problem with this theory: Her opinion was a dissent. She and the liberals lost on the Commerce Clause argument over the mandate, which is what the conservatives' joint opinion was addressing when it referred to her view as dissenting. The terminology's not inaccurate, just a little odd given that it was the conservative side that ultimately ate a big ol' shinolaburger today.
Ed Whelan's reason for thinking the conservative opinion was originally a majority opinion is more convincing:
The joint dissent issued by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito certainly reads as though it were written to be the majority opinion. Among other things, the joint dissent's discussion of the taxing power doesn't respond to the Chief Justice's opinion (indeed, I think it never even cites it). Rather, it addresses only the government's argument. By contrast, the Chief's opinion repeatedly takes issue with the joint dissent. This strongly suggests to me that the joint dissent was written first, as the proposed majority opinion, but failed to garner the fifth vote from the Chief…
One serious problem with the above theory is that it's difficult to reconcile with the fact that the Chief would have assigned the majority opinion in the first place. An alternative theory is that the joint dissenters wrote their opinion as they did, after the Chief circulated his draft, in order to signal their deep dissatisfaction with his draft. I now lean towards this alternative theory.
I might have missed something but a quick skim through the conservative opinion has me thinking Whelan's right: While they do address Ginsburg by name and answer her arguments directly, at no point do they address Roberts — even in the crucial section on the taxing power that ultimately upheld the mandate. (The opinion starts on page 127 in case you want to check our work.) Instead, their arguments are addressed to "the Government," i.e. the DOJ and the Solicitor General. It strikes me as deeply odd that they wouldn't tackle the chief head on when discussing the linchpin of the case given that it's the main point of contention between him and them. And something else is strange too: The conservative opinion goes on to argue in methodical detail why the rest of the law shouldn't be severable from the mandate. Quote:
The opinion now explains in Part V–C–1, infra, why the Act's major provisions are not severable from the Mandate and Medicaid Expansion. It proceeds from the insurance regulations and taxes (C–1–a), to the reductions in reimbursements to hospitals and other Medicare reductions(C–1–b), the exchanges and their federal subsidies (C–1–c),and the employer responsibility assessment (C–1–d). Part V–C–2, infra, explains why the Act's minor provisions also are not severable.
Major provisions of the Affordable Care Act—i.e., the insurance regulations and taxes, the reductions in federal reimbursements to hospitals and other Medicare spending reductions, the exchanges and their federal subsidies, and the employer responsibility assessment—cannot remain once the Individual Mandate and Medicaid Expansion are invalid.
Why would they bother with an intricate analysis of which provisions were severable from the mandate if this opinion was written in the knowledge that the mandate was ultimately being upheld? You only need step-by-step instructions on severability if you're in the majority and obliged to provide lower courts with guidance on which parts of the statute are still operative and which aren't. If you're writing in dissent, that's a waste of time. Which makes me think … maybe when this was written the author wasn't in dissent.
So what happened here? Could be that this was written by the four conservative justices as a bizarro-world majority opinion as a sort of middle finger to Roberts on how things should have gone. But in that case, why didn't they add language attacking his opinion on Congress's taxing power specifically? It makes more sense to think this was the majority opinion at some point — perhaps written by Roberts himself (since he likely assigned the opinion to himself from the beginning) and then discarded after he switched his vote. The other conservatives then salvaged his opinion, polished it up a bit, and republished it as their own, possibly as a tacit rebuke to Roberts or possibly because Roberts switched so late in the game that there wasn't time to draft something new from scratch. Or, as yet another alternative, maybe Roberts was on the fence all along, which spurred the conservative bloc and the liberal bloc to each write their own "majority" opinions in hopes of persuading him to join them as the fifth vote. When the conservative bloc ended up being disappointed, they left their opinion more or less as is, whether due to time constraints or pique or both.
Any other theories? I don't buy the idea that Roberts flipped at the last minute because of all the liberal hacks screeching at him on MSNBC and in the New Republic. That was always a fait accompli. If he was going to vote to uphold for that reason, he would have been a solid yes from day one and the conservative opinion here would have looked very different. Exit quotation from Romney's website: "As president, Mitt will nominate judges in the mold of Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito."


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Take a Climate Change Expedition!
Get your passport ready! It's time to go on a trip around to world to explore the effects of climate change. Each flag on the map below represents a stop on your journey, and you can visit them in any order you like. You'll see a short video at each stop... and you'll also need to complete a few challenges along the way!
Select any flag on the map to start your journey!
At the end of each
stop, you'll get a
passport stamp
and a code.
Keep track of
these codes!
If you collect them all, you can use the red button above to get a certificate.
How Does this Expedition Work?
At each stop on your journey, you'll see a 5– to 10–minute video. Make sure to turn on your speakers or plug in your headphones so you can hear the sound. Here are some of the controls that you'll see on your screen:
Depending on your Internet connection speed, the video might pause occasionally to allow the rest of the file to download. Please be patient!
Each video will pause a few times to ask you a question. Use your mouse to choose the answer you think is correct. Then click the blue button that says "Try Again," "Next," or "Continue."
At the end of each video, you'll receive a passport stamp and a code:
Enter your codes on the tracking sheet. When you collect all of the codes, click the special button on the expedition page and follow the instructions to earn your reward.


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What you need to earn to buy a home in 25 big U.S. cities
Buyers must pull down at least $66,167 a year to purchase a home in New York City
The cost of living in America varies wildly.
In Cleveland, people need a base salary of at least $19,435 a year to afford the average home, while San Franciscans must make upward of $115,000 annually. HSH.com, an online mortgage and consumer loan information website, figured out how much a person would have to earn to afford a home in 25 of the country's largest metropolitan areas.
To do so, HSH looked at the National Association of Realtors' fourth-quarter data for median home prices and HSH.com's fourth-quarter average interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages to determine how much money homebuyers would need to earn in order to afford only the principal and interest payment on a median-priced home in their market. (They did not account for property taxes, insurance, and other expenses — read their methodology here.)
Click here for the city-by-city breakdown.


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Recently we told you about upcoming albums from The Verve and Slipknot. Both bands are anxious for fans to hear their new music, and they're feeling generous, to varying degrees.
The Verve are offering a new track, Mover, as a free download. Just click on the band's website and go to it. In our opinion, if this track is any indication of the rest of Forth, the band's first album in 11 years, the wait has been worth it.
Across the pond, in Iowa to be exact, Slipknot have regrouped after several years of solo projects. Their upcoming CD, All Hope Is Gone, is said to be their fiercest set ever, and judging from the two tracks available for streaming on guitarist Mick Thompson's MySpace page, "fierce" is certainly the word.
Forth will be released internationally on August 18 (the next day in North America) and All Hope Is Gone drops on August 26.


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This poster measures 12 x 16 and is printed on archival quality Royal Sundance 100lb felt cover stock. This paper has a great texture that showcases the color and feel of the design. It will arrive signed and shipped flat with a protective backing board.
This piece was created by artist J. Spencer Shull.


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What you need
1 Hard cover book
Craft Knife
Velvet or felt
White craft Glue
Sponge brush
Take a hard covered book that is at least 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) thick to provide you with enough depth to store items in it.
Open the front cover and turn over a few pages so you are about 10-20 pages into the book. Secure the pages with a rubber band or paper clip. This will prevent them getting in your way.
Take a ruler and measure a rectangle leave a border of about 1/2 inch (1.5cm) from the outside edge. Mark the rectangle with a pencil.
Next take your white craft glue and add a little water to it to make it thinner and easier to spread.
Start from the back of the book and glue each page down including the hard back of the book with a few dabs of the glue around the edges. Remember we will be cutting the middle of all the pages away so keep the glue to the outside. Make sure you keep the pages flat as you glue.
Glue all the pages until you get to the page with the rectangle drawn on it. Then glue that page down also.
Allow the book to dry. Add some heavy weight to keep the pages flat whilst drying.
Once dried use your craft blade to cut out the rectangle.
You can press down hard with the craft knife to cut multiple pages at a time. Keep doing this till you reach the bottom. Leave a few pages on the bottom and make sure you do not cut through the hard back cover on the bottom.
Take your felt or velvet and line the square by gluing it into place. Finish off the edges with some ribbon or binding.
Add 2 pieces or ribbon to the front and back of the book so you can tie it to keep the book closed.


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Xi Jinping delivers a speech as the rest of the new Politburo Standing Committee looks on. China on Thursday unveiled the elite group of leaders who will set the agenda for the country for the next decade, the culmination of months of secretive bargaining and a carefully choreographed performance of political pomp.
The seven members of the powerful committee that sits atop the Chinese system strode out onto a stage in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. They were led by Xi Jinping, who takes over from Hu Jintao as head of the Communist Party, which has ruled China for more than 60 years.
Xi is joined on the new Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top decision-making body, by Li Keqiang, who is expected to replace Wen Jiabao as premier early next year, and five other veteran party officials.
Although the committee's lineup is new, analysts said it appeared to be predominantly conservative and unlikely to bring about meaningful political changes in the world's most populous nation and second largest economy.
China's new leaders: Who's who
Xi also succeeded Hu as head of China's powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees major national security and military affairs. That makes for a cleaner transition than in the past two power handovers, when the former party chiefs held onto the key military role for years afterward, using it to keep exercising considerable power and influence.
A far cry from the relentless media campaigns and frequent public appearances of U.S. presidential candidates, the efforts to determine who ended up in China's most powerful posts have taken place behind closed doors, part of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
The focal point of the process has been the party's 18th National Congress that has unfolded amid heavy security in Beijing over the past week.
Despite the spectacular economic and social changes China has undergone in recent times, the party has maintained a tight grip on power and upheld its obscure methods for selecting its top leaders.
The consequences of the leadership handover are significant for the nation's 1.3 billion citizens, its neighbors in Asia and the United States, which is warily watching China's economic and military rise.
Standing in front of a huge landscape painting on Thursday, Xi brought a touch of cordiality to the start of his speech before a packed room of reporters, apologetically acknowledging that he and his party colleagues had kept their audience waiting by appearing later than scheduled.
But he quickly turned to serious matters, warning of the "many severe challenges" that the party faces.
He singled out corruption, remoteness from the general public, as well as undue emphasis on formalities and bureaucracy as particular concerns.
Experts detail 5 challenges for China
The secrecy and exclusivity of the procedure by which China's top leaders are selected, involving maneuvering and deal-making among senior party figures, leaves a lot of the country's citizens feeling detached from the process.
"Many ordinary people don't feel so excited or joyful about what's happening," said Lijia Zhang, a Beijing-based author. "People say, 'Oh, it's the party's business, nothing to do with us -- and we do not have a say in selecting the leader or the policy.' "
But Xi's speech had more of a human touch than many of those delivered by Chinese officials, and he addressed subjects close to the heart of many Chinese people and others around the world.
"Our people have great enthusiasm in life," he said. "They hope for better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, medical services with higher standards, more comfortable living conditions and a more beautiful environment."
What kind of changes Xi, 59, and those joining him on the party's most powerful committee are likely to usher in over the coming years remains shrouded in mystery.
"Xi Jinping is in many ways an unknown commodity," said Mike Chinoy, a former CNN correspondent and now a senior fellow at the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute. "He's risen to the top of the Chinese system by being very careful not to disclose what he really thinks."
The son of one of Mao Zedong's top lieutenants, Xi is considered a "princeling" because of his family's place in the Communist Party aristocracy. He is also believed to be close to the Chinese military.
Married to a popular folk singer for the People's Liberation Army, he has climbed through the party hierarchy, at one point holding the top job in the eastern metropolis of Shanghai. He is expected to inherit the title of president from Hu, 69, early next year.
Some observers have expressed hope that the next decade could bring a degree of political reform as Chinese leaders seek to bolster their legitimacy, which has been eroded by widespread corruption and the dramatic scandal this year involving the former senior party official Bo Xilai.
China's young talent: To stay or to go?
But many analysts are skeptical about the willingness of leaders to adopt significant changes, noting the concentration of power and money at the top of the party. The new set of leaders appears set to uphold the status quo, according to Willy Lam, a history professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"By and large, we have a conservative team," Lam said following the announcement of the new Standing Committee. "We can expect no substantial or meaningful movement toward political reform."
The new leaders are likely to be "in favor of staying the course, maintaining political stability and defusing challenges to the party's authority," he said.
The new Standing Committee is more streamlined than its previous incarnation, dropping for nine members to seven. The smaller committee may help bring about greater unity and efficiency at the top of the party, some experts say.
Besides Xi and Li, the members of the elite committee are Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.
The new lineup shows that Jiang Zemin, the 86-year-old former party chief who preceded Hu, still maintains heavy clout in the Communist hierarchy, said Cheng Li, director of research at the John L. Thornton Center at the Brookings Institution.
The composition of the committee is "not a surprise but a disappointment," he said, adding that it was dominated by people loyal to Jiang.
He said some Chinese people would be disappointed about the decision not to include Liu Yuanchao and Wang Yang, senior officials who he described as "strong advocates for political reform."
Blind Chinese dissident's family bears scars
The next chance to refresh the Standing Committee's membership will occur in five years, when the Communist Party's next National Congress takes place.
For the time being, the committee remains a men's club with no woman among its new members. Since the Standing Committee's creation in 1949, no woman has ever held a position on it.
Despite speculation that Liu Yandong, the lone female member of the wider Politburo, might be tapped for the elite group, she was not among the seven members who marched across the stage Thursday.
Her age may have been a disadvantage in her candidacy, according to the Hoover Institution, which is based at Stanford University. Liu was born in 1945 and has been a member of the Politburo since 2007.
Women lag in political representation in China. Only 2.2% of working women were in charge of the state offices, party organizations and other enterprises or institutions, according to the Third Survey on Chinese Women's Social Status, a national survey released last year.
The number of women on the 25-member Politburo has increased, though, from one to two: Sun Chunlan, the party secretary of Fujian province, joins Liu, who was already a member.
The reaction from China's neighbors to the unveiling of the new leadership reflected its complicated relationships in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan, which is locked in a tense territorial dispute with China over a group of small islands in the East China Sea, said it hoped "the mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interest will be further developed and enhanced with the new leadership."
Kim Jong Un, the young leader of North Korea, sent a message congratulating Xi on his new position, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Kim's message stressed the long "friendship" between the two countries. China is the reclusive North Korean regime's main ally, providing it with vital economic support.


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Block has created a cheeky promotion for Dalton that highlights the strength of its triple-coated cardboard stock while gently poking fun at any designer, artist or art director who has mimicked stencil art in an attempt to gain street credibility.
Under the guise of helping designers create their own subversive artworks, the book critiques the clichéd iconography (skulls, copyright logos, hand grenades, nuclear symbols, etc) that is found all too often in stencil art.
Called, 'You're So Stencil – a designer's guide to keeping it street', the book features five ready-to-use die cut stencils, which can be ripped out and used in a tongue-in-cheek demonstration of the durability and versatility of Dalton's White A Artboard stock.
"We needed to create a piece that would demonstrate the board's amazing quality and creative possibilities while entertaining and engaging a notoriously fickle audience – our fellow creatives," says Mark Braddock, Creative Director at Block.
"We wanted to create something that at first glance looked self-indulgently 'designer cool', but ultimately is a critique of our style-obsessed industry. At the same time, most of all, we wanted it to be fun," says Braddock.
"A lot of street art tries to be intelligent and political, but is really quite shallow and not very clever. We wanted to have a light-hearted dig at some of the really bad street art out there," says Ben Wright, art director at Block. "Our ready-made stencils are part of the joke – just rip them out and start spraying. You don't even have to get your hands dirty," he says.
"Our guide to stencilling is designed to look as though it could be genuine, but on closer inspection, you realize we're having a laugh. We hope it will appeal to anyone who's noticed that a lot of street art is not very anarchic at all," says Melita Masters, copywriter at Block.
Photographed by Ross Clugston in New York – the birthplace of graffiti – 'You're So Stencil' is now being distributed to art directors and designers across Australia.
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